at reminds me," said Captain Cai hardily entering, and for all his
lack of observation falling at once under the spell of the little front
garden--so scrupulously tidy it was, so trim and kempt, with a pathway
of white pebbles leading up between clumps of daffodils and tulips to a
neatly thatched porch: so homely too, with but a low fence of euonymus
shutting off all that could offend in the court before the cow-byres; so
fragrant already with scent of the just sprouting lemon verbena; so
obviously the abode of cleanly health, with every window along the
white-washed house front open to the April air. "That reminds me, I
never mentioned the--the deceased--your late husband, I mean, ma'am--nor
how sorry I was to hear of it."

"Did you know him?" asked Mrs Bosenna, scarcely glancing up as she
pinched the fragrance out of an infant bud of the lemon verbena.

"Very slightly, ma'am. Indeed, I don't remember meetin' him but once,
and that was at Summercourt Fair, of all places; me bein' home just then
from a trip, an' takin' a day off, as you might say, just to see how
things was gettin' on ashore. As fate would have it I happened into a
boxin' booth, which was twopence, and there, as I was watchin' a bout,
some one says at my elbow, ''Tis a noble art, deny it who can!'
An' that was your late husband. We'd never met afore to my knowledge,
an' we never met again; but his words have come back to me more'n once,
an' the free manly way he spoke 'em."

"I feel sure," said Mrs Bosenna, "you and he would have found many
things in common, had he been spared. . . Now, I dare say, you'd like to
look around the place a bit before dinner. Where shall we begin?
With the live stock?"

"As you please, ma'am."

"Well, as we're to eat sucking-pig, we'll go and have a look at the
litter he was one of; and then we'll take the cows; and then you'll have
to excuse me for a few minutes while I attend to the apple-sauce, about
which I'm very particular."

They visited the sow and her farrows--a family group which Captain Cai
pronounced to be "very comfortable-lookin'."

"But how stupid of me!" exclaimed Mrs Bosenna. "To forget that you
sailors are tired to death with pork!"

"Not with this variety, ma'am," Captain Cai assured her.

They passed on to the cow-houses, which were empty just then, but
nevertheless worth visiting, being brick-floored, well-ventilated, and
roomy, with straw generously spread in the stalls, fresh and ready